Anyone know what gauge wires the battery cables are on these trucks? Son in law has some really corroded cables on the Excursion. I was going to pick up some welding cable and replace them, but a quick glance looks like different sizes for different cables.

Anyone have a list of gauge and length for each one to save me a little time?

 

I can't say off the top of my head but I am guessing the one that joins the two batteries is a #2 AWG, then where they join up to feed the starter it gets a lot bigger like 2/0. The one that goes to the fuse box looks like 8 or even 6 AWG. If no one comes forward with the correct sizes I may be able to measure mine over the weekend. By the way you can get the whole assy on ebay for under $100, it's quite a complex bundle of cables and connectors to build at home.

 

I was just going to focus on the corroded ones, but under $100 sounds like it might be worth it. My ebay skills are lacking. Care to provide a link?

 

you didn't say what year, there was a major electrical change in 2002. Here's the 2002-2003 cable:

2002-2003 Ford F250 350 450 550 Excursion 7.3L V8 Positive Battery Cable OEM NEW | eBay

 

heres more 02-03 for even less 02-03 Ford Super Duty F-250 F-350 Excursion 7.3L V8 Positive Battery Cable OEM | eBay

 

Large Grounds and POS between batteries is 1 Gauge. Small ground off passenger battery I believe is 6 Gauge. I will dig up the two other positive cable lead sizes tomorrow at work.

I threw on copper lugs to the cable end and military style posts for about $40-$45. Much prefer this setup over OE.

 

I had corroded battery cables too. So to do me a "favor" my best friend cut the battery terminals off my truck while I was at his farm one​ day. Forced me to fix a part I'd been putting off.

We replaced everything that touches a battery with 00 welding cable, much improved soldered on connectors, and buried cable shrink wrap (with the glue/ sealant) to completely seal the connections. It's a huge improvement over the factory harness. And cost me about $45

 

Has anybody ever checked to see if the sizes aren't printed or embossed right in the sheathing of the cables? It usually is.

 

I still remember my first 'trip' to ebay and how I was overwhelmed with a cavernous site with so many ways to turn. However, I have found it to be one of the most useful tools available to us today and highly recommend that you check it out. For starters just pick an item, any item that you want, need or even just bought. When you go to ebay.com there will be a search box down below, not the one up top where the HTML for the website goes. Type in an object that you are looking for and hit the search button. Type in, "7.3 powerstroke glow plug relay", if you don't have any other ideas and go from there. If you have PayPal and it's linked to your bank account they have all of your information saved and all you have to do is click, click and voila, purchase made and merchandise is on its way. I have found that they have high standards to trade there and when I had problems with merchandise or sellers they helped resolve it at an amazing pace.

 

I agree, just make sure you pay attention to the shipping charges and factor that into the overall price of the item. Some people seem to really like making money on shipping there!

 

Shipping $$$ is why I use Amazon Prime if at all possible, free shipping. They have almost always had what I need and with propper pricing as well.

 

Me too! Especially now I have 1 day free prime shipping available to me for orders over $35!

 

I refuse to let paypal link to my account, and I've always been scared of getting screwed on ebay. I've heard plenty of horror stories.

Anyway, turns out I don't need the cables after all. Was able to trace it down to the passenger side positive, overgrown, battery connector. This was on an 00 model so it had the old style lead connectors.

Used a volt meter to discover that the passenger side battery wasn't drawing down at all with the glow plugs or while cranking even though the motor was barely spinning, and the driver side battery cables were getting pretty hot. Ohmed the passenger battery positive post to the post on the fender relay and found an open connection. Found the pass through connection in that overgrown battery clamp to be working fine. Turns out there is apparently corrosion between the upper and lower half of that one piece looking battery connector and the truck was being started only from the driver side. Couple that with a corroded ground wire on that side and that battery wasn't charging well either.

Put copper welding ring terminals on all 3 wires and put them on a new battery cable connector and the thing starts like it's brand new again.

 

Like inexpensive fixes.

 

Replaced all my battery cables....bought MotorCraft through Walmart...free shipping to store.